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Mansouria Al-Shatt

Cost of Repair
Repair and renovation$24,300

Tom Sager (trip leader of the Leon White Brigade) reported:

"The Mansouria plant is in a rural setting, outside the village of Hebheb. It is on the Tigris River and serves about 7,000 people. The plant works now but not well. Chlorination is accomplished by the operator dumping a bucket of chlorine into the sedimentation tank every now and then.

Besides installing a chlorinator, we will be replacing 2 intake pumps, building a pumphouse and concrete pad, replacing the intake line from the river and the electrical panel, and rebuilding the filters.

When we arrived, only the operator was there. Later, others arrived to help us with the physical labor. Our work at the plant was to bury the intake pipe which was above ground and to dig a trench on the river side of the concrete pad that the sedimentation tank sat on. Again, the work was symbolic, but I think symbolism is important. The Iraqi's could dig five times as fast as we could. I broke the handle on one of the shovels. (actually it was a makeshift tree limb.) They refused to accept payment for the shovel handle."

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